Into The Unknown
by toothlessturtle21
Summary: Frozen 2 AU. Zane's been hearing voices ever since the final battle, the owner of which he swears he recognizes. When a burst of light is summoned that tries to convince him to leave the newly created ninja school, he is forced to face a destiny that doesn't exactly line up with the one he was promised.
1. The Journey Begins

Zane first heard the voice once the Overlord-slash-Garmadon hybrid had fallen.

In the rubble of the Final Battle, when he held Cole tightly with a relieved laugh, a feminine voice sounded out over the debris.

_ Zane..._

The Ice Ninja tensed, ripping away from Cole to look around, seeing nothing but his fellow ninja rejoicing and some concerned citizens peeking out from behind the buildings nearby. Nobody remotely close enough to match with the sound that seemed to fill his ears.

"You alright, Zane?" Cole furrowed his eyebrows, and Zane nodded.

"Yes, I am. Thought I heard something, is all."

Cole narrowed his eyes, knowing Zane's sixth sense was nothing to be toyed with, but trusted the Ice Ninja's initial instincts and relented.

"Alright. Let's go find our friends."

When Zane hugged his father tightly, so happy that he could share in the success, that his father saw the fruit of his labor. The inventor commented on Zane's nervous glances, on how he searched the faces of those who congratulated them for something unknown to the elder. The android brushed off the accusations, saying it must be the adrenaline from the fight still wearing off. The doctor eyed his son with suspicion, and Zane couldn't help but think that his father knew what he was feeling.

* * *

The next time he heard the voice, it was a few days later, in the middle of a team dinner. He was happily eating his ordered out pizza, folding the crust as to not let the toppings melt off. He was in the middle of listening to one of Jay's rambles when the same voice filled his head, but more forceful this time.

_Zane!_

He startled, nearly dropping his slice, which he caught with a fumble. Jay flinched back, equally as jumpy from Zane's sudden movement. Cole noticed too, and recalled the events of a few days ago.

"Hey dude, you sure it's nothing? This is the second time this has happened, at least that I know of."

"Yeah, what's going on Frosty?"

"Nothing, I assure you. I am fine," Zane smiled reassuringly, trying to regain his composure as his two teammates shared a look that Zane couldn't decipher.

"If you say so," Cole acquiesced, but the Ice Ninja could hear the warning in his voice.

* * *

Completing the school was looking like a success. All the ninja had to do was renovate the classrooms to fit their own personal needs, and they would be all set to open up the boarding school.

The voice had been relentless all the while.

Zane had been waking up in the middle of the night to the same voice filling his head, drowning out even his own thoughts as he fought for even an ounce of rest. For over a week, the Ice Ninja had just given up, staying up to meditate rather than try and get any shut-eye with this woman competing with him for space in his head.

Luckily, it had decided to leave him alone during the day, so his friends had forgotten about the episodes. There was one night, however, after a few weeks of being driven up a wall, that Zane snapped.

It had been circling for hours, and he felt like he was drowning in sound. He crept from his room out onto the deck, and from there the school building. It was empty, surely, and the perfect place to try and figure out why this woman felt it necessary to slowly turn him insane.

Once on the roof of the school, he took a deep breath, and tried to answer back.

"Yes?"

For the first time that night, the voice went silent. Zane smiled, hopeful, and tried again.

"Who are you?"

_Zane!_

"No, that's me," The Ice Ninja deflated, pacing the flat concrete roof with urgency. "Who are you?"

Silence.

The android sighed, and braced himself for the voice to return when a flash of blue light startled him. He whipped around to face the new appearance, and was staring at a pale blue light with what looked like snow falling off of the object before melting onto the roof.

_Zane__._

The voice sounded once more, but this time distinctly from the light in front of him. Satisfied with the results, he reached out to touch the orb, coldness passing through his fingers before the illumination darted to the side, the Ice Ninja following like a moth drawn to a flame. This game continued, and Zane was finding he rather liked the nature of this light. It was playful, allowing him to catch it before putting itself in harder to reach places on the rooftop. That is, before it jumped off entirely.

Inside the school, two figures stood frozen.

Wu and Dr. Julien stared at each other, in the middle of discussing the results of the day's work, having lost track of time. The initial thump on the roof had startled them, and now they were listening intently, trying to figure out what the figure above them was doing, hearing faint laughter and the far away patter of erratic footsteps. Their questions were answered when they saw the mystery person jump off the roof through a nearby window, catching onto a tree branch, clearly chasing an unnatural ball of light that was taunting them.

"Not already..." The doctor trailed off, looking lost as the light revealed the figure to be Zane. "I thought it had begun, but I wasn't expecting the full effect now."

"What are you referencing, Julien?" Wu pressed his lips together in a thin line, and the inventor sighed. "I'll explain everything in time. Come, let's watch."

The two cracked open the window very quietly, and the sounds of Zane's rare laughter filled the air.

"How long are you going to keep this up?" The android slowed down for a moment, leaning against a tree to catch his breath. "What is your goal here?"

The light faltered, and Zane frowned.

"Yes, I know. You've been calling out to me for a month now. I know you know my name."

The light moved a few feet backwards, and Zane took tentative steps towards it, aware this was no longer a game.

"You want me to follow you?"

The orb flickered wildly in agreement, and Zane suddenly looked less playful.

"I can't do that. My friends and family are all here. I can't live a solitary life once more."

More blinking.

"Do you really know nothing but my name?" Zane asked with a hint of frustration in his voice. "This is a very anticlimactic end to weeks of torment."

The light moved again, this time closer to the edge of the cliff the school resided on.

"What is this, a suicide pact?" The Ice Ninja mused, a dry sense of humor he had picked up after months and months of living with his brothers. Nevertheless, he took a few steps closer. "I can only follow you so far."

The light was now over the edge, hovering just out of his fingers' reach.

"Stop teasing," Zane contended, an edge of pleading in his voice. "I need to understand your motives here. Why are you trying tempting me away?"

The light came back, and the android had grasped it for only a moment before it flit away once more, the pattern repeating several times.

"I've told you," Zane bristled, patience running thin as he approached the edge once more. "I can't follow you."

The light darted out of reach, and in a moment of boldness, the android blasted ice onto the side of the cliff, skating as far as he would dare over the side, the ice jutting out at sharp angles.

Another flicker.

"I know you know my name!" Zane begged, unable to go much farther for fear of the ice snapping under his weight. "Stop enticing me, please!"

He crept forward a little more.

"What do you need me to tell you?" The Ice Ninja inched out a few more steps. "That I know I'm not meant to teach?"

A little farther.

"That deep down I know that I recognize your voice?"

Even farther.

"That I know I'm not meant to be a ninja? That I know there's someplace else that I belong?"

The ice snapped, and Zane fell with it.

From inside, Sensei Wu watched, horrified, as Julien took a deep breath and shut his eyes tightly.

"Please work, please work."

A few seconds of dead silence passed, the only sound being Sensei's heartbeat in his ears. Then a flash of white light exploded from under the cliff, and Zane reappeared, carried by crystalline powder blue wings. To be fair, the Ice Ninja looked just as baffled as his mentor, and Julien breathed a sigh of relief, moving to the entrance to the school.

"It is time. Come, Wu, I will explain."

The duo made their way outside, the crisp night air greeting them fully as Zane tried to no avail to control his wings, and they disappeared without a trace.

"Zane," The doctor greeted simply, and the Ice Ninja jumped.

"Father? Sensei? What are you doing out so late?"

"I could ask you the same question, son," Julien smiled, and Zane looked at his mentor nervously.

"How much of that did you both hear?" He asked quietly, knowing what he had said and scared of the repercussions.

"Enough to know how you feel," Sensei tried not to let his confusion shine though as his student looked back and forth between the elders.

"Son, I have a serious question for you. More serious than I have ever been in my entire life," The doctor stepped forward, and took the ninja's hands in his, thumbing over the smooth skin. "Have you ever heard of the Eira people?"

"Only in legends," Zane answered earnestly, the light from before reforming behind him. He barely spared it a glance. "Do they have something do to with what just happened?"

"The Eira people?" Wu asked incredulously, nervous for a reason Zane couldn't figure out why.

"Yes, Zane," Julien responded, not offering any more information. "I am asking you to put an immense amount of trust in me. You must follow the light."

"You're telling me to leave?" The android looked worriedly between the two. "I mean what I said, but that doesn't indicate that I want to leave my family behind."

"Trust me, son. You aren't leaving us behind. It will make sense in time," The inventor gave his son a warm hug, and the android relaxed into it. "Go, please son."

"I-" Zane looked at his Sensei, who nodded despite the confusion. "Okay, father. I will go."

He bowed to his Sensei, and looked out nervously after the light.

"I will return," Zane promised. "I cannot fathom why or how, but I will."

"I will see you, my boy," Julien smiled, and watched as his son bid his final farewell, skating down the side of the cliff with ease, ice forming under his feet as quickly as it melted behind him.

"You sounded nervous, Wu," Julien side-eyed the Sensei with unease. "Something about the Eira strikes a bad chord with you, I know. However, I won't press. Have a good night."

And just like that, the inventor had left, leaving Wu alone on the cliffside, wondering what adventures lay ahead for his student.


	2. An (Attempted) Murder Most Fowl

"What do you mean Zane's gone?" Kai gawked, and the others were equally as taken aback.

"The voice he was hearing finally caught up to him," The doctor explained, and Cole nodded.

"So it_ did _mean something. Called it."

"How long is he gonna be gone for?" Jay asked, and Julien's heart sank at the depressed edge to his tone.

"I don't know. There is no way of telling," Sensei answered, but Julien couldn't drive his earlier nerves out of his mind. Surely Sensei knew something he wasn't sharing about the Eira.

"Is that all? He's gonna follow the voice and then be back? We can just hold off on opening the school until he can come back and teach," Kai relaxed, reassured by the plan he had created, and Julien and Wu shared a look with each other.

"Zane will not be coming back to teach," Julien stated simply, and the team froze.

"I thought you said he was coming back," Nya stated confusedly, almost like a question. "Why wouldn't he be teaching?"

"For reasons I cannot explain at this point in time," The inventor sighed, wondering how long he could keep it a secret for before he cracked or the team figured it out.

"So we don't know when he's coming back and he's not going to be teaching with us? Why didn't he say goodbye?" Kai asked sadly, face resembling that of a hurt puppy. Julien felt guilty for not considering the crew when he told Zane to leave at that very moment. Of course they would feel hurt when one of their own up and left without even bothering to say goodbye first.

"It is my fault, I told him to leave at the time he did. I'm sure he would've said goodbye if given the choice," The doctor contended, but the gang didn't look convinced.

"If you say so," Jay resigned, and left to continue working on his classroom to take his mind off of the events.

"I'm not taking over science," Kai commanded, and Cole agreed quickly.

"Same here. Nya?"

"Yeah, I guess it's up to me now, huh? I was the only one without a subject," She shrugged. "I'd imagine he'd want me to have it anyway."

"Can we not talk like that? You make it sound like's dead," Kai requested, and Nya hummed in apology.

"Yeah, sorry."

"Let's get to work, I guess," The Earth Ninja frowned, dissatisfied with how the whole situation played out.

Soon, only the elders were left, an unspoken tension rising between them.

"Why do you refuse to share your knowledge about Zane's departure? If he is not in any danger like you say, then why keep it a secret from the rest of us?" Wu asked with a calm tone, but Julien could hear the anxiousness.

"I never said his journey was harmless," The doctor pursed his lips, dread filling his stomach at the thought of his son in peril with no one around to assist him. "However, the information itself I swore to protect, Wu. In time, with the right circumstances, it will all be made clear. But for now I am sworn to secrecy."

* * *

Way later that day, Zane noticed the sun setting, and it dawned on him that he couldn't keep walking forever. The mysterious light was flickering in and out, only appearing when he needed to change direction or something of the sort.

He decided to set up camp, and quickly summoned a quaint little frosted tent, slipping inside with ease. He curled up on the floor, also ice, and let out a deep sigh as he reflected on the day's events. So much had happened that it almost didn't feel real, and he half expected to wake up any minute in his bed back at the school. No such event occurred. He heard a faint caw, and smiled as he heard wings swooping. The falcon must be nearby, looking to take the journey with him.

Wait, those cries sounded awfully loud. And the wingbeats a little too powerful.

Zane snapped upright, suddenly wide awake. He peeked outside his tent, fearful, and his breathing clipped as a silhouette of a massive avian creature cycled overhead, wingspan at least ten feet across.

"It's just a bird," Zane muttered to himself, staying as still as he could. "You like birds. Birds are nice. Birds don't want to attack-"

He was cut off by an entirely different bird of prey ripping his tent clean out from under him, sending him sprawling into the undergrowth, plain training shurikens drawn and waiting. The carnage came crashing down a solid thirty feet away in a small clearing, ripped to shreds. The Ice Ninja trembled, not quite sure how to fend off a pack of murderous birds.

One dove straight for him, tearing through the trees like paper, and Zane slashed with his throwing stars best he could, making the predator squawk and pull up. Another one immediately swerved in from the opposite side, and Zane ducked, dashing through the forest with light footsteps. He dodged swoop after swoop, feeling talons graze his back, wondering how low he could run for until he found suitable shelter.

His plans were ruined when one bird happened to land close enough to wrap one razor-sharp talon around his torso, picking him up with ease as Zane let out a startled cry. He quickly tried to dig his shurikens into its foot to force it to drop him, which only partially succeeded.

Yes, the bird let him go with an angry and frustrated caw, but a large wingspan meant the bird could gain elevation very quickly, and suddenly Zane found himself hurtling through the sky, trees rushing towards him at a very frightening speed.

Many thoughts rushed through Zane's head, including declarations of death, if there was an afterlife for robots, and most depressingly of all, how long it would take for his friends and family to discover his lifeless corpse. He could have cried of happiness when the light appeared in front of him, and he found himself being lifted on the same wings as before, relief flooding his system even though he had no way of controlling his new appendages.

He carried on for a while like this, not bothering to worry about landing because it was out of his control anyway. When he did finally drop a few hours later, he was exhausted from a whole day of continuous walking and stress of being almost carried away by murderous bids of prey, so he build an ice shield around himself, curled up tightly with his shurikens in hand, and promptly went to bed.


End file.
